1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a control apparatus for an internal combustion engine for effecting a timing control by identifying reference positions corresponding to individual engine cylinders, respectively. More particularly, the invention is concerned with an engine control apparatus which can rapidly perform cylinder identification to be reflected onto the timing control with a simplified structure and which apparatus is capable of executing a backup control even when a failure occurs in a first signal series containing an angular position signal indicating an angular position of a crank shaft.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, in a control system for an internal combustion engine (hereinafter also referred to simply as the engine), a reference position signal and a cylinder identifying signal generated in synchronism with rotation of the engine are utilized for the purpose of controlling ignition timing, amount or quantity of fuel to be injected (hereinafter also referred to as the fuel injection quantity) and others. Usually, the signal generator for generating these signals is mounted on a cam shaft of the engine and structured such that one-to-one correspondence to the engine cylinders can be established for thereby detecting indirectly rotation or angular positions of a crank shaft.
For having better understanding of the present invention, technical background thereof will be descried in some detail. FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a mechanical structure of a rotation signal generator employed in a hitherto known engine control system, and FIG. 9 is a circuit diagram showing an electric signal processing circuit provided in association with the assembly shown in FIG. 8. Such rotation signal generator is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 68252/1994 (JP-A-6-68252) on the assumption that the internal combustion engine of concern has six cylinders.
Referring to FIG. 8, a cam shaft 1 is rotated at a speed equal to a half of the rotation speed (rpm) of a crank shaft (not shown) so that the control timings for all the six cylinders can be covered by a single rotation of the cam shaft 1.
More specifically, a rotating disk 2 fixedly secured to the cam shaft 1 so as to corotate therewith is formed with a series of radial slits 3a in an outer peripheral portion of the rotating disk 2 with equal angular distance therebetween for generating an angular position signal POS formed by a series of pulses which are generated at every predetermined angle in the course of rotation of the rotating disk 2. Additionally, the rotating disk 2 is formed with a predetermined number of windows 3b (six windows in this case) for generating reference position signals REF in one-to-one correspondence to the engine cylinders, respectively.
A light emission diode (LED) 4a is disposed fixedly at a position facing a circular array of the slits 3a, while another light emission diode (LED) 4b is fixedly disposed at a position facing a circular array of the windows 3b. Further, photodiodes 5a and 5b are fixedly disposed in opposition to the light emission diodes 4a and 4b, respectively, with the rotating disk 2 being interposed therebetween, wherein the light emission diodes 4a; 4b and the photodiode 5a; 5b cooperate to constitute first and second photocouplers, respectively.
Referring to FIG. 9, amplifier circuits 6a and 6b are connected to output terminals of the photodiodes 5a and 5b, respectively, while connected to the output terminals of the amplifier circuits 6a and 6b are output transistors 7a and 7b, respectively.
As can be appreciated from the above, the rotating disk 2, the photocouplers 4a; 5a and 4b; 5b, the amplifier circuits 6a and 6b and the output transistors 7a and 7b constitute a rotation signal generator 8 for generating the angular position signal POS and the reference position signal REF.
FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing an engine control system known heretofore. Referring to the Figure, the angular position signal POS and the reference position signal REF outputted from the rotation signal generator 8 are supplied to a microcomputer 10 by way of an interface circuit 9 to be processed for controlling the ignition timing, the fuel injection quantity and others.
FIG. 11 is a waveform diagram for illustrating the angular position signal POS and the reference position signal REF outputted from the rotation signal generator 8.
Referring to the Figure, the angular position signal POS is comprised of a series of pulses generated in correspondence to the slits 3a, respectively, formed in the rotating disk 2, wherein each of the pulses of the angular position signal POS is generated, for example, at every crank angle of 1.degree.. Thus, the angular position signal POS can be used for determining the angular position of the crank shaft. On the other hand, the reference position signal REF has a pulse sequence repeated upon every rotation of the crank shaft over every crank angle of 720.degree.. More specifically, the pulse sequence of the reference position signal REF includes six pulses each rising up at a predetermined angle in correspondence to each of the engine cylinders, wherein the six pulses have respective pulse widths which differ from one to another engine cylinder so that they can be used as the cylinder identifying signals, respectively.
The conventional engine control system implemented in such structure as described above by reference to FIGS. 8 to 10 can discriminatively identify the individual engine cylinders and the reference positions (reference crank angles) on the basis of the angular position signal POS and the reference position signal REF for effectuating optimal control of the ignition timing, the fuel injection quantity and others in dependence on the engine operation states.
However, the conventional rotation signal generator 8 is disadvantageous in that because of necessity of disposing the photocouplers 4a; 5a and 4b; 5b close to each other, the space for installing the rotation signal generator 8 is restricted with the freedom in design being impaired.
As an approach for solving the above problem mentioned above, there has already been proposed such an apparatus which is so implemented as to generate the angular position signal POS and the reference position signal REF with high accuracy in association with the crank shaft while generating only the cylinder identifying signals bearing one-to-one correspondence to the individual engine cylinders, respectively, in association with the cam shaft 1, as is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 68252/1994 (JP-A-6-68252).
However, the engine control system disclosed in the above publication suffers shortcomings in that the sensor as well as peripheral devices thereof provided in association with the crank shaft for generating the angular position signal POS and the reference position signal REF is much complicated and expensive and that a great difficulty is encountered in realizing a backup control in the case where either one of the angular position signal POS or the reference position signal REF becomes unavailable due to occurrence of abnormality or fault in the sensors provided in association with the crank shaft, leading possibly to shutdown of the engine operation.
As is apparent from the foregoing, the engine control system known heretofore suffers a problem that the freedom of design is impaired when the rotation signal generator 8 is provided in association with the cam shaft 1, giving rise to a problem that it can not be manufactured at low cost.
On the other hand, in the case of the engine control system such as proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 68252/1994 (JP-A-6-68252) where the angular position signal POS and the reference position signal REF are generated by the sensor device provided in association with the crank shaft, while the cylinder identifying signal is generated by the means provided in association with the cam shaft, there arises problems that the sensor and peripheral devices provided in association with the crank shaft are much complicated and that the backup control can not be carried in the case where the angular position signal POS or the reference position signal REF becomes unavailable.